Monday, January 23, 2017

Merkel’s Party Slips Further in Polls

Angela Merkel’s party continues to fall from favour with German voters, according the the latest poll for Bild on Sunday.

Polling organisation Emnid’s figures show that the percentage of people intending to vote for the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), has taken a tumble for the second week in a row — slipping from 37 per cent last week to 36 per cent.

Voting intentions for populist, anti-mass migration Alternative for Germany (AfD) and the Social Democratic Party (SPD) remain unchanged from the previous week at 21 per cent and 12 per cent, respectively.

On the extreme left of the spectrum, the Left party has gained a point in the polls since last week, bringing its support to 11 per cent while the Green party, down a point, are polling at nine per cent. Support for the liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP) stands at six per cent while support for other parties rose from four per cent to five this week.

Speaking at a party conference earlier this month Merkel, who is seeking a fourth term as chancellor in elections to be held later this year, urged voters to stand up for liberal values, telling the audience that they should be grateful to have free speech.

The results of the latest Emnid survey, in which a representative sample of 2,805 Germans were asked which party they would vote for if the Bundestag elections were held next Sunday, are the first figures released since Donald Trump told the Times that the embattled German head of state’s decision to welcome migrants was “catastrophic”,

Support for Merkel’s centre-right CDU has taken a hit since the chancellor’s decision to open the borders resulted in an influx of nearly two million migrants having arrived in Germany since 2015.

Since Donald Trump’s election victory in November, several media outlets have hailed Merkel as a beacon of the liberal west, proudly standing for globalism and neoliberalism in the face of a rising tide of populism.